Naked cucumbers are the future

In South Africa, you will find cucumbers in all kinds of packaging at supermarkets, including plastic and cardboard boxes.

In other countries such as the UK cucumbers wrapped in plastic are the norm.

Cucumbers will no longer be wrapped in plastic at Morrisons stores in a bid to reduce packaging.

The move will save 16 million plastic sleeves each year and it helps dispel the myth that naked cucumbers' cannot be kept fresh.

A spokesperson for the UK's Morrisons says: "Cucumbers have typically been sold in plastic to improve its life in the fridge and in the supply chain.

"The plastic layer serves as an extra skin to prevent the cucumber's dehydration which is important because they are typically more than 90 per cent water."

There is no need for cucumbers to be wrapped in plastic. Flickr

Earlier this year, the waste reduction organisation WRAP announced a UK Plastic Pact, which was signed by leading stores and brands committed to removing all single-use plastic packaging by 2025.

A number of stores such as Morrisons, Iceland and Waitrose have already taken measures to eliminate the use of throwaway plastic.

The founder of the campaigning group, A Plastic Planet, Sian Sutherland, says: "Plastic has no place in food and drink, it makes little sense to wrap something as perishable as food in something as indestructible and long-lasting as plastic."